Pork

Reflecting on my last ramen post, i.e., Motomachi Shokudo, I have to admit that, despite new ramen shops have appeared, one thing is also good: Opinions have been divisive as to which ones are “good” and which ones are “bad”. In fact, some people believe Kintaro is still king of the hill, while Santouka is overrated, the lower profiled Benkei hits the spot and Sanpachi seems to be middle of the road. Unless you are the one who says “everything is good” (specially if you didn’t have to pay for it), these opinions are good because it allows so room for discussion. So, just to throw yet-another-ramen-shop, I went to Q Go Ramen….

“Me, too”, “Me, three!!!”. Isn’t it funny that, once somebody establish a new type of restaurant, copycats pop out as if there is no tomorrow? After Meat & Bread opened, there is Dirty Apron Deli and Big Lou’s Butcher Shop – the topic of today’s post. Well, it is not that it is bad; specially when these are different enough and/or has an unique twist. Rather, it is the fact that it does not feel… Original? Regardless, here is the question: How is the end product?

I have mentioned that I am un-Chinese Chinese. What does that mean? That, while I was raised with the culture, there are a lot of things, specially traditions, didn’t really “stick” with me. Of course, growing in another part of the world (read: Panama) meant I had to balance things: local vs. background? Of course, moving to Canada wasn’t even in remote parts of my mind back when I was growing… Oh, how things have changed. But, what has not changed is that desire to celebrate the major Chinese holidays. Chinese New Year, Autumn Festival, et al. And with that it means… Food!

A couple of weeks before I went to San Francisco, I received an email from a very dear friend telling me “[this picture] is for you! All things PORK! ;)”. That “thing” my friend was making reference to was a sandwich board saying “Tasty Salted Pork Parts”. I guess some people really do know me, hehehehe. So, when I was in San Francisco, I made sure I visit Boccalone, this place with this sandwich board!

OK, OK, final stretch of San Francisco post. Aside from this one, for Friday’s post, I have Boccalone located in the Ferry Building (more details on that one when time comes) so, until I have another trip to San Francisco…

As for today’s post, so far, almost all posts I have had for San Francisco have had a companion/partner-in-crime component. Once again, I have to give Sherman thanks for being a good sport and tagging along. From taking the ferry for Hamburgers to going to a dim sum dive-y place to agreeing to go to Incanto (located not necessarily in a main street) rather than some more popular restaurant. Of course, there were things that I wanted to do by myself and, in those cases, I chose to break apart from the main group. So, on the Sunday after dim sum at Dol Ho, Sherman had plans with his cousins at Foreign Cinema and I had plans to visit Boccalone (again, Friday’s post). After that, I was planning to do some sightseeing, walking around. One of those places was the Castro District – the equivalent of Davie Village in Vancouver. A very dear friend of mine made mention about it so I decided to drop by. Of course, crappy weather slowed me down a little bit but, still, I managed to drop by. On my way back, I decided to stop by one of the BART stations to get some food. The interesting thing is that, near the Mission BART stations, there is a certain level of Latin food but, oddly, I chose not to go that route. Instead, I went for something more… Mundane? Basic? Something that “normal” people can identify? Namely, meat in a tube? (OK, that sounded strange…). That’s how, I ended up going to Rosamunde Sausage Grill.

Earlier this year, fellow blogger Chris of Eating is the Hard Part visited San Francisco and wrote of Incanto, the restaurant of celebrity chef Chris Cosentino. To those who do not know, Chris Cosentino’s, aside form rustic Italian cooking, has also participated in different TV shows, including his won Chef vs. City. However, what I care more is about *what* he cooks: in his menu, he includes offal dishes. Yes, cooking from head to tail and almost everything in between! So, when the FoodBuzz Food Festival was announced, restaurants plans were flying going back and forth. While JS/TS and Sherman had quite an extensive list, I had only two places in mind: Hamburgers (Sausalito) and, you guessed it, Incanto!

Ah, San Fran, San Fran… After FoodBuzz Street Food Fare Welcome Reception, Sherman, JS/TS and Mijune, each one of us called it a night. However, since we didn’t necessarily planned to attend all FoodBuzz events for the morning, we decided to tag along for some other activities. In my case, Sherman and I agreed to meet for breakfast and go from there, which included looking for some good eats outside of the San Francisco area. But, that is jumping ahead so, for this post, breakfast.

Here is a bit of a curve ball: while the hotel did offer continental breakfast, how exciting that would have been as blogging material? I guess not much. So, we decided to look for nearby options and option #1 had a somewhat ridiculous queue… At 8:00 a.m.! How bad it was? Imagine a breakfast version of Stepho’s… 1 hour queue? For breakfast??? While walking around, Sherman mentioned Taylor Street Coffee Shop (TSCS) as an option. Sure, why not!